On May 4, 1886, socialist and anarchist labor activists assembled at Chicago's Haymarket Square during the bitter campaign for an eight-hour workday. When police ordered the gathering dispersed, someone hurled a bomb into their ranks. Chaotic gunfire followed.
Eight Chicago police officers ultimately died from injuries attributed to the attack: Mathias J. Degan, John J. Barrett, George F. Miller, Timothy J. Flavin, Michael Sheehan, Thomas Redden, Nels Hansen, and Timothy Sullivan. Fifty-nine other officers were wounded.
August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel were convicted of murder under conspiracy and accomplice-liability theories and hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg killed himself the previous day. The unidentified bomber was never tried, and none of the executed men was proven to have thrown the bomb.
Were they hanged for speech? Technically, no. They were convicted of murder based on an alleged conspiracy to promote and encourage revolutionary violence. In reality, however, their speeches, writings, political beliefs, and associations supplied much of the prosecution's case. Several were not even present when the bomb exploded. Their convictions were affirmed in Spies v. People, 122 Ill. 1, 12 N.E. 865 (1887), and federal review was denied in In re Spies, 123 U.S. 131 (1887). Governor John Peter Altgeld later pardoned the surviving defendants, concluding that the trial was unfair and the evidence insufficient.
The monument honoring the slain officers became a target itself. Radical members of the Weather Underground bombed it on October 6, 1969. After it was reconstructed, they bombed it again on October 6, 1970. The restored statue was eventually moved under police protection and now stands at Chicago Police Headquarters, 3510 South Michigan Avenue. The bombers apparently believed that destroying a monument to murdered policemen was another form of political expression. History may choose a less flattering description.
Sources: National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund; Chicago Police Department historical materials; Spies v. People, 122 Ill. 1, 12 N.E. 865 (1887); In re Spies, 123 U.S. 131 (1887).
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